Welcome to FLASH FICTION WEEK @ SickLitMagazine!
We love a good theme here at Sick Lit Magazine.
Poetry week was a smashing success! THANK YOU to my talented and brave poets: Prerna Bakshi, Kanika Katyal, Jamie Andrews, Gavin Hedaux, Richard Green, Christopher Iacono, Owen Clayborn, John Kauldren, Josie Alford and Georgina Middleton (Gee Charlie Middleton). Special shout-out and THANKS to Gee Charlie Middleton, for providing me with some beautiful images when I was in a bind and without my computer. Even IF I had had my computer, your photography IS AMAZING.
Your work has been inspiring, cathartic, powerful, painful and beautiful.
You have all truly captured the essence of modern-day poetry through your diverse pieces. BRAVO and well done! It was truly a pivotal moment for SLM to have your work and vision shine through to the forefront of our first-ever POETRY WEEK.
Through our open-submissions call, I’ve received a fantastic variety of flash fiction from Gene Farmer, Amy Acre, Jennifer Obi, Pete Langman, Hugh Smith and Tom Gumbert.
My dedication to your work and my continued focus on being a positive platform for it is unmatched in this industry; and I am proud that we are seeing our vision come to fruition at Sick Lit Magazine.
As our team grows and expands, it only gets more exciting.
It’s time for me to STRESS SOMETHING: Even if you are just now reading this and have a piece to submit for FLASH FICTION WEEK, send it over!
Don’t be shy and don’t fall into the trap of hating your own work. I know that so many editors and agents will tell you over and over again that you aren’t good enough. But let me tell you something: MY WRITERS HAVE SOUL.
You guys have locked down something that others will never be able to capture: PASSION. VISION. DRIVE. You are the real artists. You are the real writers. Not some reality television star who’s had a ghostwriter slap together a sub-par, shitty self-help book.
I could not care less about mainstream writing and what the “norm” is. I want to deviate from that and show how raw and real life is.
All of these shiny, plastic-wrapped magazines and novels with veritable bows on top aren’t real. They are books of what their editors micromanaged to death and forced to “happen.” And it’s quite possibly what their target audiences want to believe happened during October. In a celebrity-obsessed culture that sees little beyond our own noses, it’s hard to wade through all of the fluff to find something REAL. Something and someone who isn’t a machine or a cog in said machine.
(I’m trying to say that I’m not a cog in the machine and that I’m real. I talk back.)
PLEASE NOTE: Our submissions e-mail is changing as of right now! This is for two reasons: It’s difficult for me to keep up with two e-mail addresses and I can’t stand Yahoo mail. ALL SUBMISSIONS AND INQUIRIES from here on out must now go to: Kelly.fitzharris@gmail.com
If your submission is dated before this post and it gets sent to the yahoo address, I will still see it. And since I’m changing it in the middle of our open-submissions-call, I will still be honoring any work sent there through the 30th. (I’m not that big of a jerk.)
ALSO, PLEASE NOTE: I do about 98% of my correspondence and networking through Twitter. I don’t know why, but I fucking love Twitter. Thus far it has been kind to me and has helped me to make many meaningful connections. SO, if you want to get more involved, follow us @sicklitmag , follow me @kellycoody and tweet or DM us! I’m not like other editors who have ridiculous pro-claimers stating not to talk to them on twitter or you’ll be automatically disqualified. What’s the point of THAT? It sounds like bullshit to me. That’s the entire point of Twitter, to talk to and connect with potential contributors and artists.
As editor and journalist, I’m a bit behind. We have a fantastic LGBTQ spotlight on our own regular contributor-slash-troublemaker, Jamie Andrews, and have a few music features in the works. Please make sure and harass him about his birthday (It was on Nov. 14th), and his new-found status of “officially old” at 33.
Plus, in the midst of all of these things, my desktop computer died. Like, factory-reset-died. So I’ve been working from my father’s laptop, which contains zero photography of mine. As of today I have my computer back (thanks to my dad coming over and fixing it).
Peace and Love,
Kelly on behalf of SLM
Cheers!
SICK LIT MAGAZINE 